Tonk's Discovery
by plimplamploum
Summary: A random discussion at Grimmauld Place during Harry's hearing leads Tonks to get a completely new idea about "the power he knows not" : Sometimes, repeated all-nighters disturbing the brain chemistry can prove actually constructive...
1. Chapter 1 : Tonks' Discovery

**So : I decided to made a new and updated Author Note, cause obviously, now that we are on the fourth chapter... Yeah, the story is ON. Still not too sure about how I'm going to manage finishing it (still am a super lazy person, with a goldfish attention-span... And now about 2 or three new plot bunnies in my head, demanding my attention too...). But I'm going to give it my best shot ! And hope you're going to like it.**

**Now, a few warnings :**

**I'm not really a native english-speaker, so if there are any problems (grammatical or otherwise), do not hate me for it : not my fault ! If you have corrections to propose (to make the story a bit more understandable, a bit more fluid, whatever), you're welcome to propose them, but I may or may not accept them : Depending of the part, I just might prefer my bad english to a good one.**

**It's also my very very first fanfic, so bear with the clumsiness.**

The sound of multiple pairs of pounding feet invading a too small area was the main reason she woke up. Or maybe the woman who was ushering all those feet around the table, grumbling in a totally audible way about children lazing around and cleaning that doesn't make itself done, or maybe the so-not-silent giggles mixed with various kitchenery noises and whispers just barely too low to be understandable… Anyway… She wasn't asleep anymore… No matter how tired she felt, she wasn't going back to sleep with so much noise around… Plus, she was quite uncomfortable. I mean, come on, that pillow was so damn hard, she could as well have fallen asleep on a cauldron… Wait…

Opening her eyes was harder than usual, despite being clearly awake -yes, she was awake, thanks to all those noisy people around, totally awake, not at all fighting against giant rabbit-like cotton-clouds to get her brains to work thank you very much, brains- giant-rabbit-like-cotton-clouds doen't exist anyway, any witches could tell you that… - Oh yeah, totally awake… No more consecutive all-nighters keeping an eye on the DOM, no matter how important : Order or no Order, auror or no auror, she agreed to risk her life, not to die of sheer exhaustion in the middle of breakfast… Right, breakfast… Clearly, she DID fall asleep against an actual cauldron, on the kitchen table, and no wonder all the kids were trying (and failing) to keep their laugh in check : she must have a very SPECIAL pillowmark on her cheek, right now…

Fred and Georges clearly thought that with her being awake now, they didn't need to even try to be discreet, anymore, and giggles became all out laughter, while Ron and Ginny were trying their best not to do the same. Hermione was the only one actually trying (quite miserably) to regain some composure. And Mrs Weasley was still grumbling about whatever cleaning of the house she had planned for today and how everyone had better eat something before starting the hostilities or else…

"Dear, I really think you should go to bed, right now : you're clearly exhausted, and I'm sure Ginny or Hermione wouldn't mind letting you borrow their bed until you're rested enough to go back to your own place…"

"Uh ? Oh, no, I'm good Molly, that little nap already made wonders ! Uhm… I guess Arthur took Harry to his hearing, then ? I really wanted to tag along for a bit, but looks like I missed them…"

"Actually, you were there, but clearly half asleep through the entire conversation, if you don't remember it at all…"

"Well, I think I actually remember a bit more, now that you remind me… YES ! Arthur proposed to take the next night-shift ! Wonderful man you've got yourself, and a life-saver, a total life-saver…"

"How is he doing ?" asked Hermione, and by the sudden absence of laughter and giggles, it was clear the others were worried about that too.

"As well as can be expected, he's stressed, but we all made sure he knows there is no reasons for him not to be cleared, given the situation," Mrs Weasley answered, but given her sudden concentration on buttering some already done toast, it wasn't all that reassuring for the children, Tonks supposed…

"No worries, guys : he's going to make it, that's for sure : if not, Sirius promised to take care of Madam Bones himself, plus Arthur made sure he's there in advance, and Molly here even tried to straighten up his hair : with him being so smart, punctual, and the threat of a no-mass-murderer, if things does go wrong, it's going to be some serious presage : probably the harbinger of the coming of age of the Cristal-ball-eating blue ant."

Her comment left the entire kitchen gobsmacked, and with the cotton-rabbits still waging war in her head, the reason as for why was a bit tricky to figure out…

"What, now that I'm awake, I DO remember the conversations we had this morning, just because I'm tired…"

"I think our surprise has more to do with cristal ball eating blue ant than anything… I mean, where does that EVEN come from ?" asked Hermione, with an air of being totally out of her depth on this one, which was quite unusual on her usually well-versed face.

"Herr… Sorry about that… When I'm tired, I just start making up stuff that clearly doesn't make much sense. Maybe I SHOULD go to bed before those damn rabbits make me say more non-sense…"

"Rabbits…" Georges asked with a look that seemed equally worried and excited.

"Brain-rabbit-clouds… Making it harder to concentrate… Whatever, I'm not on the job, I can afford to be a bit nonsensical at the moment…"

"Please, keep going !" said Fred, clearly delighted by the turn of conversation.

"We wouldn't dream of depriving you of a well-deserved nonsensical episode," added Georges.

"Boys ! That's enough ! I'm going to make sure a bed is ready for you, I'll be back soon," declared Mrs Weasley – Molly, she asked to be called during the first order meeting, Molly, not Mrs Weasley…

As soon as Mrs… Molly had left the room, the twins immediately rallied to keep asking questions about the dangers of the crystal ball eating blue ant, the origins of the brains-rabbits, what she remembered about other exhaustion-induced nonsensical moments, and how badly the straightening up of Harry's hair had gone.

Trying to focus on the less future-ridicule inducing subject, she choose to concentrate (go away damn rabbits !) on Harry's indomitable hair, explaining how little effect the attempt had got, and how it was even more of a bird-nest after than it was before, only lacking a few eggs to be honest.

"Actually, at that point, it's quite obvious no comb will ever manage that feat. It would be much more effective to simply cut it all extremely short : in that case, no one will see how messy it get, too short to point in every directions, or on the contrary, to let it grow until it's long enough to use braids, or I don't know what to keep it at least apparently tamed…"

"No way", snorted Ron,"Not even that would work, I'm sure : his hair totally seems to have a mind of its own : I mean, I never saw him cut it, but it doesn't grow longer anyway, so that's for the braids – good one, by the way, I have to remember to think about what Harry would look like with braids – and he told us about how his aunt tried to cut his hair, once, and it grow back during the night : so no way the shorter version is going to work either."

The rabbits seemed to be suddenly much quieter.

"What do you mean, it grow back during the night ?"

"Well, I guess it was some kind of accidental magic, at the time, except that it must have been seriously powerful to keep working today. I bet his aunt is a seriously catastrophic hairdresser…"

The rabbits were actually walking on egg-shell, right now…

"Do you have any idea how old he was when that happened ?"

"He didn't really say, he wasn't too sure of the details (apparently, it's one of the first bout of accidental magic he remembers more or less clearly) but I think I remember him saying his aunt wanted to cut his hair for the beginning of school, so if it was the beginning of primary school, he would have been about six year old", answered Hermione, " it's quite interesting, actually, because now that I think about it, spells to cut hair are pretty straight-forward, but to regrow them, they are much more complicated, not mentioning keeping them at the same length for such a long time : I don't think I heard of a spell that can do that yet, because a spell that can stop the growth of hair would be very interesting to study to see if it could be applied to others area, maybe against growing old, especially… It's incredible how some things apparently possible to do instinctively are supposedly impossible as soon as we try to get an actual understanding of HOW it's actually working…"

The rabbits were now totally silent : no clouds in her head. Everything suddenly had a crystal clear appearance. She knew it was the calm before the hurricane, that she would soon lose this clarity that came from the nearly impossible combination of exhaustion and awareness, that she had to write her suspicions down as quickly as possible, before she lost the reasoning behind said suspicions in her excitement / incredulity / wonder and everything else she was going to feel at the same time as soon as that unnatural clarity would be gone. But she also knew that she would need find more clues before letting anyone into her revelation : it was too big to share with the class before being absolutely certain. And even then, it was too personal a matter to bring it up unless Harry agreed with it… If she was right… Which she was pretty sure was the case… She seriously needed to ask a few questions to her mom… But if she was right… Harry very well could be a metamorphmagus !

"Tonks dear, Ginny's bed is ready, are you sure you're awake enough to find it on your own ?"

"I'm totally awake right now, Molly, don't worry, actually, I'm going to have to pass on your offer, I just remembered that I have an urgent appointment that I really, really can't afford to miss. I'm on my way", she said standing up suddenly, surprising everyone again," See you soon everyone !"

"Wait you're planning to travel by floo right now ? It's dangerous, Tonks, what if you mispronounce your destination, you could end up pretty much anywhere !"

"Good thing I'm not planning to use the floo, then", she continued, grabing her coat and exiting in the corridor.

"Muggles way could be far worse Tonks, please, you're really exhausted, it's asking for bad luck to strike, just rest a few hours, everything will be much more clear…"

"No way, I don't think my thoughts have ever been clearer, which is good, given that I don't have the time for muggle ways either, so I'll have to apparate. But I promise I'll be careful and go to sleep very soon"

She managed to cross the corridor without tripping a single time, not even on that stupid umbrella stand (quite an accomplishment, that), while avoiding Molly, and exited on the front porch, where she immediately focused on her parents garden, to pop-out hearing Molly almost begging for her to stay, and apparate next to the apple-tree her dad had planted when she was born.

Well, normally, she would have listened, but the strange clarity was already starting to crumble under various emotions she really didn't care analyzing, right now. She had to write down the clues, development, conclusions, and the questions which would allow her to dig deeper in her brand new discovery, then and only then would she allow herself to crash on her bed and sleep for a week, which was one of the reasons she came back to her parents' home, and not her little apartment on Diagon Alley : she didn't shop for any food those last few days and wouldn't last long, plus here, she would be able to ask her questions to her mother immediately after waking up. Maybe her father could come up with some answers too.

After a good-morning kiss to her mother and mumbling something about a tiring day at work, she got to her old room and started listing the various points building her theory :

1 : accidental magic only ever provoke things that actually can be done with a non-accidental spell (even if sometimes, the spell in question hasn't been discovered yet)

2 : No matter how many people tried to study way to change one's appearance with magic, spell by themselves are NOT able to modify said appearance for longer than a few hours at best : any longer effect need potions, enchanted object to keep the spell powered (but in that case, said object don't really need the spell : it just need to be enchanted to modify the person appearance), or some kind of other form of magic anyway.

3 : Harry Potter, at age 6 (presumably), did "accidental magic" that resulted in a change of appearance still in effect (to the point no one seems to notice anything special about that)

4 : Metamorphmagus' magic is completely different from the one used to cast spells, which is totally obvious, given how little metamorphmagus there are : 2 in Britain in total, and the other being an old bat completely nuts, at the very least a century and a half old… And she can keep her appearance unmoving for days, if she concentrates enough (tiring, to focus so much for NOT changing, and totally boring, yes, but definitely possible)

Questions :

When did SHE manifested metamophmagus ability for the first time ? What prompted it ? How did she control it (or not) at the beginning ?

What of others metamorphmagus ? Are there different "level" of metamorphmagus ability, where one could change everything about herself within the same general volume and weight, when another could only change his hair, and even, only its length ?

There was some serious digging into it to do… But first, she needed to finally sleep… Never doing more than the one all-nighter at the time : it's a killer… And apparently, the brain-cotton-rabbit-cloud decided it was a good time to come back and dance with crystal-ball eating blue ants so seriously, it was such a good time to let go and sleep for, like, a year…

**Again, a little Author Note : If that chapter provoke some big realisation on your part, and you decide to make your own story from this point on, I have no problem letting anyone use it as some kind of prompt : I've always wanted a story with a good reason for Harry to be a metamorphmagus, so please, go ahead (and don't hesitate to mp-me and give me a link to your own story : i'm interested)**

**On a totally different note : Most review are welcome, all are read, and I do my best to answer. They certainly help my ego confort. But if you don't feel like leaving any, I completely understand too : I know myself to be a terrible reviewer (I must have given a grand total of 5 review since I found this website), so I completely understand my readers' right to be shy and/or lazy : after all : that's exactly my own problem !**

**Now, I hope you liked this chapter, and that you will keep liking the next ones, even if they obviously won't be the same : Among other thing, Tonks won't be half-asleep in most of them... Too bad...**


	2. Chapter 2 : Tonks' Digging

Her second wakening of the day was waaaay more confortable than the first. For once, she was comfortably snuggling cushions in a bed, instead of drooling on a cauldron. And there was silence. Blissful silence, that allowed her to wake up gradually, feeling so much more like herself… Proof : no clouds in her head, rabbit-like or otherwise. Yep, definite progress… Well, time to wake up and start a brand new day. Or maybe to begin checking how much of that brand new day is left, after sleeping through most of it…

She balanced her foot out of the bed, and stood in total cheerfulness, happy for her well-deserved rest, sending her bedside pile of books and stuff scattering randomly on the floor. Well. No matter, she would tidy up again after breakfast. Plus, she thought she remembered having made a weird discovery needing discussion with her mom before going brain-dead to the world. She checked quickly what that sleep-deprived idea was : depending on time, lack of sleep could equally give her insane reasoning based on absurd postulates, or bout of random genius, the latter being usually difficult to actually use, because most of the reasoning was done by doing some instinctual jump in logic, jump that she usually couldn't repeat in a rested situation : so the bout of genius sometimes could simply be absurd reasoning that lead to something that seemed to actually make sense, but who knows…

So, it was something to do with child magic ? Transfiguration ? Harry Potter's accidental magic transfigured whatever ? Ahah : there it is : Harry Potter is a metamorphmagus.

…

Okay, looks like one of those absurd reasoning leading to something only half ludicrous (at least, it's not about the blue ants eating-preferences… She thinks there was something about it too in her head, before sleeping, and you never know what idiotic line of reasoning an exhausted brain might choose).

Let's read again what made her think that Harry damn Potter (perfectly normal kid, if you forget about the Boy-Who-Lived craziness) would be a metamorphmagus. Looks like, for once, she actually tried to explains the various steps of the instinctive mental jump to her less-instinctive (and certainly less random) awake self. If it's still doesn't make sense, she would at least get a laugh (absurd reasoning can be hilarious, from what her friends recalled of her other sleep-deprived experiences)

…

Well, at least, there actually IS something to look at. A few oddities that can work as clues, a direction to check things out… Obviously, she wasn't going to mention anything to anyone unless she got WAY more material on THAT idea, but if it was one of her genius-like idea, it was worth checking discreetly (after all, any advantage would be welcome in the coming war, and having target number one turning out to be a metamorphmagus, so perfectly able to hide in plain sight, would be a HUGE advantage).

First things first, breakfast : food-deprived brain is just as able to make a serious mess of things as sleep-deprived brain. And as apparently she went back to her parents to sleep, it would also be a perfect occasion to ask Mom a few questions.

When she got in the kitchen, her mother was already starting on the supper, apparently. So much for the brand new day. It suddenly became the brand new evening, which doesn't have quite the same ring to it. But whatever…

"Hey Mom ! How was the day ?"

"Nice actually. I got a surprise visit of my half dead on her feet daughter this morning. Do you have any idea what could have possibly possessed her to come here using apparition when she wasn't even able to see I had another guest ?"

Uhoh…

"Sorry, I was a bit distracted… Who was the guest ?"

"Doesn't matter", said Mom with a dangerous undertone, letting the vegetables finishing cutting themselves in the casserole, and turning all her attention to her daughter… She was in so much trouble… "What matters is that you used apparition when you should have stay and sleep where you were, or at least use a portkey, hell, even floo would have been better on that account ! What were you thinking, Dora ?!"

"It's okay, Mom ! I was totally focused on coming home, so there was no danger at all ! And as proof : you can see I'm all in one piece ! No splinching !"

"That's totally NOT the problem ! Dora, you have to promise me you will never do that again ! When I realized you APPARATED when you were very obviously exhausted, I thought my heart was going to stop ! The only reason your dad isn't here to add his own piece is because he was in the back garden when you came back, and didn't fully realize exactly how tired you actually were !"

She would keep building on what-if and can-you-imagine if she was left on her own, so truly, there wasn't much of a choice…

"I promise, Mom... If I ever feel the urge to come home when half-asleep, I will ask someone to get me a portkey… Or better, I'll get myself an emergency portkey to bring me here and add it to the one I got from the Auror Department that brings me directly to the ministry : that way : job-emergency, portkey to the office, nap-emergency, portkey to the folks !"

"You do that! Now, why did you come here instead of your apartment? We're very happy to have you anytime you come, but I thought you wanted more independence?"

"Oh, that, I just remembered I dropped the coat rack before going to work yesterday morning, and I couldn't put it back straight cause I was so late, so I thought coming here would make me less prone to stumbling into it…"

"So you took the chance of splinching yourself over the chance of falling flat on your face or such accident that already happens pretty much every day on multiple occasions?"

"Hum… Right?"

"You really should avoid getting sleep-deprived: it totally screw the little common-sense you usually have…"

"Right…"

"Oh, and don't eat too much: dinner should be ready in about an hour, I don't want you to lose your appetite."

"Okay, okay… Can I have at least a toast? My stomach is threatening to start a strike…"

"Damn it! I'm sure that's your French holidays last year: it picked up bad habits… Well, I suppose one toast won't hurt…"

"Yay!"

She cut herself a very THICK piece of bread, began buttering it, all the while thinking about how to bring around the subject she truly came back here for… Well, she supposed she could just actually ask the question, pretending to simply want reminiscing, which was actually kind of true, anyway…

"Say Mom, do you remember when I began using my metamorphmagus ability? I mean, sometimes, it feels like I've always had it, but at the same time, I know it's not true, and when I think about it, I can't remember an occurrence before I was six, so I suppose it only came later, but I can't really tell when it started, or why…"

"Ah, that's actually a fun story, now that I think back on it. At the moment, your father and I were quite worried, we had no idea what metamorphmagi were, or even that they existed, but looking back, it was just so you…", her mom answered, smiling at the apparently fond memories.

"A few details, please? Date, context, these sorts of things?"

"Oh, it was for a Halloween party our family had been invited to, you were seven, actually: we were supposed to have family costumes. We all went there dressed as merpeople. You were so cute, I had braided your hair so that it actually quite looked like brown algae, and even put a bit of make-up… And I used a potion to make my own hair green. The problem was, apparently, you reeeeeally wanted to have green hair, too, but the potion was too strong for cute little princesses under eight year old, so I refused to change your hair color, instead, I promised to ask someone at the party to charm it green once we were there. And then: apocalyptic disaster: my friend who was good at charms had been sick, so I couldn't ask her. Your were very very upset, and pouted for the most part of the evening, until you actually turned your own hair green all by yourself, to our great surprise, and then you enjoyed the party as any adorable green costumed-mermaid on two legs. At first, your father and I thought it was a simple case of accidental magic, and that your hair were going to come back to normal in a matter of hours, but the day after, you were still green-haired. We really started to worry after a second day like that, because we had checked: you did NOT turn your hair multiple times: they just stayed green – to your great pleasure, I do admit, but that was not the problem. We called for a healer, to check if you did something irreversible to yourself by accident : we were truly worried, even if green hair seems pretty meek in all the accident magic can bring, it's still NOT unimportant : at the moment, you were happy, but who could say if you would still be when a teenager ?"

"Right, as a teenager, I would have been terribly disappointed, if I remember correctly, I mostly oscillated between pink, blue, and every colors in between, at that age: green just wasn't my number one color, at that point!"

"Exactly! So there was this St Mungo healer, who was kind of pretty knowledgeable on everything magic that can change people appearances, and he came and checked you out. After a few questions, he determined that you could very well be a metamorphmagus, no reason to worry at all, and would you want me to advise you on books on the matter, so that you can know what to expect, and what to watch for? A really nice man, I have to admit, and his advice on book certainly helped."

"Who is that man I have to watch for, trying to steal my wife?" joked her Dad, coming in the kitchen. "Good-way-past-morning, sweetie, did you sleep well? You really scared you Mom, coming back apparating just to collapse on your bed so fast…"

"I'm good Dad, and I already had the lecture, thank you: I totally promised not to do it again, so can we go back to the subject at hand?"

"Right, some really nice librarian flirting with my Andromeda"

"Really, Ted, you seriously believe I'm going to fall for all that jealous-husband pretense? No way, especially when I'm talking about a healer who was thrice my age when I met him for the last time about fifteen years ago…"

"Are you talking about Baltazar Bubbleyes? Ah, then, you're right, my jealous heart will have to forgive your talking about another man, given said man died two years ago… Why did you discuss him, anyway?"

"Oh, Dora here wanted to know about her metamorphmagus debut: I told her the details about our wonderful self-made mermaid."

"Ah, yes, you were very cute, darling; you spent almost an entire week with your hair green before turning back to your natural color. And after that, you were so upset about them being brown again, you spent hours in front of the mirror for days until you managed to turn it back, except this time, it was purple. And then you kept going, trying pretty much every day a new color, that you kept as long as possible, and only turning back to brown when you were extremely agitated. That's when we learned to dread the color brown on your head."

"Lucky you, I don't think I used this color in, like, three year… And even, the last time was because of an auror assignment where I needed my hair with this precise color… But then, how come my hair have a tendency to change with my emotions, according to what you said, I would have thought that strong enough emotion to disturb my focus on hair color would turn it back brown ? (Not that I need much focus for that)"

"Actually, I think you kind of trained yourself to express your emotions with your hair-color. I will always remember that time you were very angry at being refused some whatever toy, and you said "Look, even my hair thinks it's unfair!", and turned them burning red! Such a cute temper-tantrum, it was terribly hard not to laugh and to resist hugging you, but we did, because we knew you probably wouldn't appreciate to be laughed at and hugged after such a display of rightful anger"

"I can totally imagine myself doing just that", she laughed, actually seeing her miniature self, stomping in the toyshop, and making her hair red to make the point at the same time…

"Yes", added her Dad, "by the time you went to Hogwarts, your hair color was entirely under your control -or under whatever emotion controlled you at the moment, unless terrible circumstances. Too bad you spent the most part of your first year actively trying to get kicked out, what with all your experiments during class and always forgetting to do your homework for reasons such as : But professor, I couldn't possibly write that essay, I used my last week trying to change my ear : look what I can do now ! I don't remember how many owls we got; we seriously feared you would drop out of school without even passing your first year, for a while"

"Lucky me, I was stupid enough to imitate Professor Snape nose during one of the multiple detentions he gave me. God! Was he livid. I actually thought he was going to turn me into very little potion ingredients right here right now. I got so scared I actually spent the next two weeks with only my hair color playing free, and refused to leave the common room except for lessons, for fear to meet him again (I totally refused to go to potions), and that he might change his decision to let me free : as a result, I never studied half as-intensely as those two weeks, which managed to compensate for the rest of the year, and I actually did pass the exams !"

"Never thought I would see a day I would be thankful for Snape terrible terror-based pedagogy", noted her mom.

"Right. So hey, do you still have those books about metamorphmagi around? I never really learned much about them, always preferred experiment on me, because it was much funnier, but I guess I could still learn a bit? "

"Of course Darling, they are in the attic: we haven't needed them in quite a while, I have to admit. Go help yourself. Just don't get too caught on that you become deaf to dinner calls", answered her Mom, "and maybe, if there were people around you when you left this morning, you should send them an owl to let them know you actually made it in one piece : I'm sure they would be worried too."

"Oh! You're right! I'm sending it right away! Can I use Nightwing, Dad?"

"Go ahead Dora, she didn't have much to do those last few weeks, I'm sure she would welcome the exercise."

"Thanks!"

She stood, took the time to put the chair back on its feet, and went to send a quick "Don't-worry-I-made-it-in-one-piece" note to Grimmauld Place (wouldn't do to let Molly worry too long : she had enough to do and to look after as it was), then climbed to the attic, looking for metamorphmagi books. Once she got them, she went back to her room, where she first needed to list what she knew about her own ability, when how what and stuff, to make her investigation as thorough as possible. The whole Harry-Potter-is-a-metamorphmagus hypothesis was still totally strange, but after the discussion with her parents, it seemed that her sleepy-self was actually right about the part where changing your hair for more than a few hours was NOT a normal accidental-magic occurrence in childhood.

Well : time to investigate deeper !


	3. Chapter 3 : Tonks' Research

Once back in her bedroom, she started comparing the two books she had found in the attic: one seemed to be some kind of research essay on the subject, apparently going quite into the details, the other had « Metamorphmagi for Trolls »: well, even if she never actively seeked deep information about her ability, she still thought she wasn't THAT ignorant of them. So she put it on the side, deciding to begin with the more serious stuff: her hypothesis was quite serious, anyway, even if strange. Plus, she had reasons to believe if Harry turned out to actually BE a metamorphmagus, there were good chance that he was kind of a special case, anyway: so: detailed and serious stuff, here we go!

No real chapter titles? No matter, she'd just open the book to a random page (still close to the beginning), and see what it has to say.

_It is believed that a metamorphmagus magical core, unlike regular wizards ones, encompass their entire body, explaining how they are able to change body parts so easily, and for prolonged periods: magic is immediately available, and therefore, they can tap into it instinctively, pretty much in the same manner other wizarding children use magic instinctively to create what is usually called accidental magic, only it being even easier to access._

Riiiight. It could probably be interesting, if she had any interest in magical cores by themselves, which she doesn't, too bad. If cores were dolphin-shaped, she still wouldn't care a bit. Well, except that it would be kind of cute, thinking about dolphin-shaped magical cores, instead of noodle-shaped ones, for example. OK, stop that line of thought, back to focus! And let's jump a few pages…

_Historically, metamorphmagi rarity can be partially explained from the massacres that happened during the somber years, when it was first understood that their magical core was indeed present in their entire body, bringing the various dark wizards from this period to try and experiment to find a way to harvest magic from metamorphmagi pieces. Luckily for everyone involved, especially the future metamorphmagi, it's impossible to do. But after a few years being hunted all over the world to be turned in potion ingredient or darker ritual pieces, metamorphmagi, who were highly uncommon already, became an absolute rarity. The various experiments documented so far included…_

Oh crap! Don't want to know! Reallyreally don't! What was the author thinking, putting that kind of things in that book!? Such a revolting subject should totally be censored! Disgusting! Thank Merlin they let go of that idea years ago… She hoped fervently Voldemort would never get a look in that book, or any referencing that kind of things, or he might try to experiment himself, and she really didn't want him to get interested in her specifically in ANY way. All right, someday, in a faraway future, when she wouldn't be trying to save her appetite for her mom's cooking, she might come back and check the next few pages, just to see what were the chances of Voldemort getting interested. Sadly, it would probably depend on how thorough those dark psychos were, back in somber years… What a good name for that period, by the way… About a decade, a few centuries ago, where around twenty dark wizards upped and decided to randomly claim the title of dark lord for themselves, without consulting one another, resulting in the most absurd competition for "most evil guy of the century", along with plenty petty feud. Probably the only moment in History where it could be said that murdering-extra-dangerous-mass-killers were at the same time utterly pathetic. She still couldn't decide if that time period of wizarding history was more horrific, or ridiculous. Probably a bit of both… Ouch, let's stop digressing! Back to the original problem, and let's skip a few more pages anyway.

_As explained sooner, the somber years made metamorphmagus population go from rare to nearly extinct. The fact that no-one understands exactly how metamorphmagi come to be born certainly isn't helping the matter. Quite a few researchers tried to solve the mystery of that ability origin, but as for today, it's still an unanswered question. Still, a few facts have been documented on that question:_

_No Muggle-born has ever been found to be a metamorphmagus._

_Metamorphmagi are more often than not born from a metamorphmagus parent, but it's still a rarity. The child is only a bit more susceptible to be a metamorphmagus than other._

_Most metamorphmagi, when they don't have at least one metamorphmagus in their close ascendance, are curiously born from a muggle-born parent. There is no theory whatsoever to explain that fact, at the moment._

_Metamorphmagi born from metamorphmagus parent usually show the ability from infancy. It is believed that it simply comes from imitating the metamorphmagus parent. It doesn't mean anything about the potential they can achieve when they reach maturity. Their complete potential is entirely unpredictable, unlike metamorphmagi who never had a model to imitate, in which case, the transformation level they can attain is almost directly related to the age they changed their appearance for the first time, the sooner the first change, the more complicated metamorphoses they can achieve when adults._

Oh WoW! That could actually be interesting! So, if someday she got kids, they could be multicolor haired or other strange stuff: neat! Well, of course, she would first need to find who she actually wanted to have kids with: no rush… Oh wait : if the sooner the first change, the more complete the potential physical modifications, then how was it that Harry, who, if her theory was correct, had his first change at age 6, still haven't done anything more than keeping his hair length since then ? She herself only began at seven, and pretty much never stopped since then… Well, her Harry-Potter-is-a-metamorphmagus theory was leaky from the beginning: it just got slightly more improbable.

Mmm… There weren't any more details about first change or later potential, apparently. It looked like this book had a lot of weird information of some kind of another, but not really what she was looking for… Let's try the book for troll, and hope it's not going to tell her what she already knew…

Hey, at least, it seems to have an index with a list of different chapters: she would at least have an idea of where to look!

Soooo: _Introduction: What's the metamorphmagus ability_: let's skip that entirely…

_Chapter 1: Most common ability: hair color_: her personal favorite, in any case. If it's the most common, maybe it means it's also the easier to achieve, which would explain why it's the first she learned to control.

_Chapter 2: hair length and shape, eye and skin color_: Apparently, if Harry did change his hair, it would mean he's already on step two, and totally skipped step one: she didn't know if it was an indication of her theory being right or wrong, at this point… Herself had started on these just before going at Hogwarts.

_Chapter 3: Shapeshifting of small body-parts (digits, nails, eyes, lips, nose…)_: Ooooh: that was her first year! Snapey-Nose! So, that would be step 3, for now, she was totally on track!

_Chapter 4: shapeshifting of bigger body-parts (face, limbs length)_: Oh right, she was trying that around 4th year! Still on! What's next?

_Chapter 5: shapeshifting of the entire body height and size_: yes, this one was kind of tricky: it took her up to 7th year to fully control it.

_Chapter 6: Changing age, swaping gender_: Right: completed during Auror training: extra-useful! She would always remember Moody's face when she caught him unprepared during the exam, because he wouldn't think of her in that old guy attire: priceless!

_Chapter 7: Most uncommon ability: general volume change_: Wait! That's actually possible?! No matter how many times she tried, she could never change that: if she wanted to add to her height, she necessarily became slimmer, and the opposite when attempting to be shorter: volume and weight just refused to move an inch! Well, if it's the most uncommon, she supposed maybe she just couldn't… Too bad… But apparently, she still had quite the performance: she would have to be content with what she had, she supposed... Not that it would stop her to keep trying changing her general volume, now that she knew it wasn't impossible!

_Chapter 8: Mythical abilities: weight and voice shifting_: As in, abilities that legends talk about? She wondered what kind of metamorphmagus legends existed…

_Chapter 9: Danger coming with the ability_: there actually are any? She never noticed… Worth checking out… Hoping it's not about: be-careful-not-to-attract-dark-sorcerer-experiment-maniac-attention…

_One of the obvious danger coming from being a metamorphmagus only appear for metamorphmagi attempting to shapeshift their limbs length, and general size and height: because their body change so mush, they never get used to one single shape for long enough to truly control it, resulting in extreme clumsiness. _Okay, right, she WAS very clumsy. She even should have realized that it came from changing herself so much: no real genius involved to figure that one out…

_The other less obvious danger for metamorphmagi is their potential response to traumatic event. It's what happens if, for any reason, a metamorphmagus find himself or herself in the same shape for too long. Up until about a week, it's simply a matter of concentration from the metamorphmagus part. Beyond that, the body needs to change, like everybody else – little changes, such as nail or hair lengthening, suntan changing, freckles, scars fading, etc, and the only way to keep the same appearance for longer than a week would involve the metamorphmagus magic to go in overdrive, which can only happen on traumatic event. The more important the immobilization of appearance is, the more dangerous. It can very seriously lead up to magical exhaustion, if it last for longer than a few months. Luckily, such a problem stay rare, as most traumatic event doesn't lead to a change in their metamorphmagus ability, and in that case, the usual method to deal with the trauma are equally good for regular wizard and metamorphmagi._

Well: That doesn't sound good. Suddenly, she really hoped her theory was just that, and had no real foundation. Because if Harry was a stuck metamorphmagus, then it raised all sorts of problem: first: it would have been not months, but years, since he got stuck: really not good. Second: What traumatic event?

Damn it, she still had no indication one way or another if her theory had value or not. How was she supposed to get info on Harry's childhood, especially if it could be linked to some traumatic event when he was just a little kid?

**AN : again ! Yes, suddenly, it's not just fun anymore : well, what can I say: the books aren't JUST fun either, and I plan to follow the book for quite a long time, so no, everything won't be fun, even if I'm going to try my best and keep a fun point of view on most of it, anyway. And I think that among the "not-fun-stuff" that are present in the book, the big problem of how Harry was treated at his aunt and uncle's when he was a kid is totally overlooked : ok, now that he's a wizard, and they're usually too affraid to do much of anything to him, problem suddenly solved? I don't think so, no... I have no problem believing no-one interfered because no-one trully realized how bad it had been, and because it did got better, but still : there was some serious emotional abuse going on, and that's not consequence-free. So here you got yourself an unsolved problem to be found, and that also give me a good excuse for Harry not showing the metamorphmagus ability sooner, or in a more spectacular way (it's true that just keeping his hairlength is not exactly an impressive feat, compared to Tonks' crazy accomplishments)**

**Now, most of what I took out of the first book won't be of any use, for now, but maybe I'll use it later anyway. I had plenty of other metamorphmagus-facts in my head, but I decided to keep it short, putting the necessary facts and a few random stuff, if I need to add more, Tonks will keep the books, so I can always take out new info from those at anytime...**


	4. Chapter 4 : Tonks' Helpers

**Aaaand: Fourth chapter ! Again, it was supposed to get the future next chapter with it, but it was already long enough, so I decided to cut it in half (more or less) : It's with Tonks point of view, again, but not on her most funny moment : should be a bit better on the next (Marauders' Power !), but well... Hope you like it anyway!**

The next few weeks went by precariously balancing between excessive worry about being right, and almost complete disbelief in her deduction ability in general. She couldn't come up with any innocent way to bring up a conversation leading to a potential reveal of possible traumatic event from Harry's part, so every time she dropped by headquarter, she had to rely on one of her other talent, called procrastination. But when the 31rst of August finally arrived, she knew she HAD to move on, and at least get some kind of idea on how to get the clues she needed.

She obviously needed help. She didn't know Harry nearly enough to discuss his childhood, and had no way to get really closer in the few hours the "last-day-out-of-school" party would last this evening: he was bound to spend more time with his friends, the Weasley, or his godfather. What she needed was an ally, a close friend of Harry who could know, or at least ask without rising suspicion, and who would tell her what she needed. It's not as she needed to know any embarrassing details… Maybe she could get Sirius on board: as the kid godfather, he was bound to have some clues, or at least some valid reason to ask. And she knew she was his favourite cousin (the only one not hating him with her mom, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that she's the favourite!). Okay, so she could ask Sirius for help. Probably would have to include Remus Lupin, too, he was better for delicate handling, and she was sure it was impossible to be too careful on that subject. But she couldn't let them know exactly what she suspected: or they might find themselves just as torn as she was, and end up stuck because of excessive brain activity (the fact that said brain activity cancelled itself out notwithstanding). She would have to come up with an excuse for them to look for potential trauma in their almost-nephew childhood without telling them what brought the suspicion forward. And in such a way that they keep their mind open: there is after all no indication in that direction, outside her theory, and maybe the fact he and his relatives don't get along (not getting along with your family doesn't necessarily mean any kind of trauma: just look at the Weasley family, and how things turned out with Percy…)

So: she would get herself Marauders' help: first step that she really should have started sooner. Especially because she wouldn't be able to get enough this evening to sort everything out BEFORE the start of term. She would be lucky to manage to get their agreement to help her this evening: there wouldn't be time for many stories from their part, if they have any, and none to make discreet inquiring with Harry. Meaning he would leave for Hogwarts before she could decide her course of action. Therefore, she needed secondary help.

Magical exhaustion is something pretty dangerous, and just because he never showed symptoms of that, she couldn't just ignore the possibility: she would have to find a way to convince one or more of the kids to keep an eye out for that problem, just in case: not Ron, he didn't really seemed observant enough, and might only realise when it would be kind of late, anyway. Not the twins: they wouldn't let her go without her telling why she was asking. Hermione wasn't much better. Ginny… Maybe… But if she could find a way to get Hermione on board without giving detail, she was sure the girl would look over every kind of medical books in the library to recognise all and any symptoms, and would still be the more efficient observer. Maybe she could ask them both. And just find a reaaaally good covert story as for why she was worried about Harry and magical exhaustion…

The same evening found her hurrying out of her Auror assignment to get away and back to headquarters, hoping she could drag Lupin and her cousin to a quiet place and star her little plan right away, before the other people from the order crowed the place and make it impossible to have a quiet and – more importantly – private talk. Or even more urgent, a talk with Hermione, Ginny, or both together (after all, she could always get to talk to Sirius and Remus after school start). Sadly, so very sadly, it wasn't to happen. As she was crossing the hall, Kingsley just HAD to get on her toes and propose to go together… Well, she didn't really had good reason to say no, at any rate, so they came to Grimault Place at the same time, but as a result, of course, people just began talking all together, and she just couldn't find a good way to isolate herself without a LOT of eyebrows rising…

For a moment, she thought she found a perfect opportunity to get a hold of her cousin after Moody's arrival, when he began talking to the Weasley and additions about the Ron's-prefect stuff, and she could see both Sirius and Lupin in a deep conversation, probably involving some kind of prank, given how excited Sirius looked, and how Remus seemed to try to bring down his enthusiasm, but Harry choose that moment to wander their way. Wouldn't do to begin a "find-the-skeleton-in-the-closet-party" under his very nose… On the other side, he seemed kind of disappointed not having made prefect himself… It couldn't hurt to give him a few pointers about how that specific role could entirely be meaningless to any self-respecting person; after all, SHE had never been a prefect, and she didn't feel any worse for the lack of it.

Apparently, between her little joke and Lupin's, his mood did seemed to lift a bit. She still had to find some kind of way to isolate at least the two girls for her little last minute chat…She finally got a shot slightly after Mad-Eyes had scared poor Harry into escaping the party, showing him that old picture of the first order where pretty much everybody was dead, now… Stupid Moody. But hey, she would take what she could!

"Hermione, Ginny? Could I talk to you for a minute, please? It's… kind of important. Or at least, it could be. Well… I'm not really sure, but that's why I need to talk to you, anyway. Would you listen to me, and promise not to tell anyone?"

"Err… Okay, what's the problem, Tonks? I can't possibly see what kind of help you could need from us, but go ahead", answered Ginny.

"Well, it's kind of delicate, you see…, she began, leading the girls in the next room, to be sure not to have accidental eavesdroppers, it's something… Okay, I don't even know how to explain much where it comes from, but just… I need you to keep an eye on Harry, during school. And not as in "keep-him-out-of-regular-trouble" kind of eye, nor in "spy-on-him-and-report" kind, I perfectly know the first is simply impossible, and you wouldn't accept the second (thank Merlin). It's more like… I had a crazy random idea that came to me, that refuses to leave, and I'm worried if my idea turn out to be right, Harry might have some kind of rare magical condition that would make him prone to magical exhaustion, and I know my idea is just totally insane, but I just can't prove it to myself, so I keep getting worried, and it's too ridiculous to just go and tell the nurse, I mean, my idea is so totally out of whack, you couldn't believe it, but if it were true, and Harry's health got worse, they would need to know, and the sooner the better, and…"

"Calm down Tonks! You're rambling! Slow down!" interrupted Hermione. And yes. She was rambling. Dangerously so: she pretty much said everything, except the metamorphmagus part… All her plans to get Hermione and Ginny help without revealing anything went straight to hell…

"Let's start with the beginning. What gave you the idea that Harry might have a rare magical condition?" Hermione continued, with a soothing tone that wasn't soothing her at all, but thanks for trying anyway.

"That's the problem: remember when I was so tired I began talking about cotton rabbit and blue ants? And the twins still wouldn't let me forget about it?"

"Yes", they both said, clearly having a hard time keeping their laugh in check.

"Well, I don't really remember what train of thought I followed that day, but before falling asleep, I just randomly got that idea. And no, I'm not telling what kind of rare condition I just ended up thinking he had, it's just too embarrassing, both for him and myself: unless I have at least a clue that it's not all just in my head, I'm not sharing. But I still really need someone to keep an eye out for magical exhaustion, because if not, I just won't be able to sleep at night, while I need more time to research the condition in question, and maybe ask a few question about him, to rule out my theory."

Great improvisation, Tonks! Pretending the potential condition would be embarrassing, but not dangerous for him, should help them getting of your case! Reaally good thinking not involving the twins, because obviously, that argument would have been worse than lost on them, but those girls might consider not trying to get more blackmail material than they already have, especially when the poor guy has no control over the crazy imagination of the insane rainbow-haired Auror!

"Well. You were totally right about the "no spy" thing; sadly, I kind of agree with the fact that we couldn't possibly be enough to keep him out of trouble too, but we happen to be his friends, so of course we will look after him. If it helps you sleep at night while you check-out crazy magical conditions he could have got, I promise to keep an eye open in case of magical exhaustion: I'll even check what are the various symptom in the library, so if it comes out that he does, in fact, get magically exhausted, I'll send him to Madam Pomfrey as soon as possible. And if she agrees with the diagnosis, I guess I could even let you know. Is that enough?"

"Yes! It's perfect! Thank you so much, Hermione! I know I'm probably making a mountain out of molehill, but I really needed the reassurance…"

"If Hermione forget to tell you, I'll find a way to do it. Could you tell us what is this imaginary rare condition you think he has, once you manage to rule it out?"

"We'll see. First, I have to prove to myself that said condition is, indeed, imaginary. Not easy, especially given how rare it is…"

When they came back to the main room, the party was a bit quieter. It was getting late, so she really had to hurry and get her cousin, or it would end up being reported to tomorrow again… Ah! There he was, and together with Lupin, no less, perfect, especially since they didn't seemed to be trying to join any conversation around. Apparently, they were having some really serious conversation about Molly not being silly, and hating boggarts.

"Watcher Sirius! Can I talk to you for a minute, and maybe Lupin too?"

"Sure Dora! What can we do for you?"

"Well it's kind of delicate, and it needs to be kept absolutely private. So we can get around the details later, but the main point is, I have a few question and worries about Harry, that we need to discuss, and no, I can't really tell you where my worries come from, except that they first came to my attention in one of my most intense sleep-deprived moment, so that should give you enough not to pry. The matter is, even if I thought of a potential problem when I was half hallucinating, it doesn't mean the problem can't be real, and I need your help, both your help, to determine if we should worry about it or just throw it away with all my odd ideas associations."

"Okay, what kind of worry are you talking about? And you better not be worried about Harry losing it or anything the Prophet accuse him of, or your jumping imagination and I are going to have a problem…"

"Oh, no, nothing like that or I would have been able to rule it out after one hour in his company, no, it's more about…"

"Tonks! If you really want to be part of the guard tomorrow morning, you better get yourself to sleep soon, barked Moody, damn him, from the other side of the room. I'm not going to let your harpy of a mother chew me out again because your lack of sleep makes you unable to function safely!"

Well… She should have expected it… After her Mom had spent pretty much half an hour shooting at Moody for not teaching her how to take care of herself more, of course he would end up a mothery-minion… Her Mom had an incredible ability at getting minions to keep her out of trouble and out of anything remotely fun, most of the time. So unfair. And now everyone was making fun of her, no surprise, and the twin were starting re-telling everyone who wasn't present during her last exhaustion-induced half delirium about cloudy rabbit and crystal eating blue ant, and suddenly, she didn't feel like staying much longer in the party. And given how everyone was paying her attention, she wouldn't be able to have a private discussion with Sirius and Lupin for a while anyway.

"Guys, how about we start again on that discussion after we get the kids to King's Cross Station tomorrow?"

The two men simply nodded, a bit confused about what the discussion was going to be, and she decided to take her leave. It would be better to be well rested tomorrow, anyway, since she would need to escape quite a few of their question and still get them to help her somehow… Well, at least, she had the girls' cooperation in the bag, tonight: all in all, most productive evening in almost three weeks, she would count that as a victory.


	5. Chapter 5 : Tonks' Sharing

**Well! That chapter certainly was a hard one for me. I had to redo it completely THREE times before I finally felt like it was good enough... I can only hope you're going to like it too.**

**So it's still Tonks POV, but this time, the marauders trully get involved (I'm kind of scared about how I'm going to manage the next chapter, which should be from Sirius or Remus POV...). Enjoy !**

Travelling back from King's Cross without letting Moody realizing exactly how out of chart her stress-o-meter was took most of her concentration (where did her Dad invent THAT word, anyway? She tried to find it in a muggle dictionary once, and it didn't seem to exist there either!), thankfully making her ability to imagine how bad Sirius and Lupin reaction to her news could be close to non-existent, wich in turn kept her panic to completely manageable level, therefore maintaining said stress-o-meter on a Moody-paranoia-level, earning her a few commendation on the way back, because she was finally getting what CONSTANT VIGILANCE meant. Yeah right… Lucky his magic eye didn't make him able to read thoughts, or he would have berated her for being distracted, instead…

So now they were back at Grimmauld Place… And Mad-Eye had left for retired-auror-thinging… And they were in a room just the three of them, and Sirius had cast some kind of charm to keep their discussion private, and Lupin had gotten chairs for them to sit, and she was going to tell them shit shit shit what was she supposed to say, she hadn't had time to think about it and she thought she could find a proper introduction on the way to king's cross and back but finally couldn't damn you Moody!

"NYMPHADORA?"

Who dared use THAT name? Oh, Sirius…

"You okay? You were the one asking us for a talk, remember, so it would be nice if you could, you know, talk, or at least answer your name? If you had trouble sleeping last night for any kind of reason, we could have whatever talk you want to have with us later… I'm sure I'm not ready to discuss whatever craziness your brain can pull when it wants to sleep… Especially not in the middle of something apparently possibly problematic about my godson…"

He was trying hard to pretend to joke, but it was quite obvious that "problematic" and "godson" in the same sentence made his interest in the matter serious.

Okay, right. Time to jump head-first, anyway…

"Don't worry about my night. I slept all right. Oookay, well, first things first: the worry I got about Harry came FROM one of my sleep-deprived weirdness. So the more details you're going to get from me, the more insane it's going to sound. Just to warn you… But the thing is, even out of my original delirium, it still kind-of-make-sense. Key word being kind-of. And the big problem is that if this crazy idea that assaulted me and refuses to go back to the "stupid-ideas-I-superbly-ignore" box, together with distracting cotton rabbit and rainbowed unicorns, if this, this, this exciting and weird and totally unexpected hypothesis of mine is true… Well, among other things, Harry would have had to have a traumatic childhood, for one, and would be in serious danger if said traumatic childhood isn't solved to a point soon, too. Oh, and he would get one real kick-ass ability that You-Know-Who and his Death-Eaters would never expect, that's for sure. So you see why I need to discuss him with you? There are some seriously bad and seriously good stuff in it, but it's so damn delicate to discuss potentially-traumatic-event-that-may-have-never-happened-in-the-first-place with a teenager I don't know very well… And it still comes from a really NOT trustful deduction in the first place…"

"…"

"What "kick-ass ability"?"

"Not telling. As I said, THAT's the crazy part..."

"I understand that you are reticent to let us in, but you said yourself it still kind-of-make-sense once awake." remarked Lupin, "If you want us to help you, we need to understand what you're talking about… Looking for potential trauma alone is bound to lead to nowhere: every kid has gone through some potentially-damaging stuff, that doesn't mean they got traumatised: we can't just look and hope we're going to interpret whatever difficulty Harry may have encountered correctly. And I'm pretty sure he won't like it, so we better not just poke around randomly. We need to know what it is that worry you."

Aaand, he was right. Of course he was right. Total teacher mode, right now…

"You're going to think I'm crasy…"

"We already know you are, Dora, don't worry. We also know that your special brand of insanity is completely under your control as long as you have had a good night of sleep. Wich you already stated that you actually got. Just get out with it; I swear not to laugh at you… Well, depending on how crazy, maybe I shouldn't… But I swear not to talk about it to anyone without your express authorization, especially not the twins: how about it?"

"I guess it will have to do… Raah! I hate my random thoughts! So, during Harry's hearing, the kids were having some discussion about stuffs while I was trying to wake up enough to reach a bed, and at some point during the conversation, they began talking about Harry's hair, how it's impossible to tame and all, and… Irealizedthatmaybejustmaybehecouldbeametamorphmagus…"

"Slower Tonks, We didn't catch that"

"Harry may be a metamorphmagus."

She was quite proud to be able to let it out straight with only two attempts. Which was obviously the moment Sirius chose to laugh out loud, losing all kind of control in his mirth. Lupin was barely better, looking at her as if a second head had popped on her right shoulder.

"Yeah yeah: laugh at me! I swear I still have good reasons to think it's a possibility!"

"Harry? Metamorphmagus? Has he ever got blue hair when I wasn't watching, Moony?"

"No, he didn't. Not the point. I'm not saying it's entirely impossible, but aren't metamorphmagi extremely rare? And shouldn't he show some signs of it? Not necessarily about his hair color, but, anything, really? I mean you change appearance every ten minutes, shouldn't he change something, if he was?"

"And that's the potential problem. If he IS a metamorphmagus, he probably got stuck somewhere along the ride."

"Okay" began Sirius, "for the sake of the argument; let's suppose my godson is a metamorphmagus who doesn't know about it. How come YOU got the idea, and why not sooner? What could have possibly be a clue to send your reasoning in THAT direction?"

"Two things, actually. Ron, I think, said something about how cutting Harry's hair would do nothing to tame it, because it would grow back overnight, apparently, it happened before: do you know of any spell that can regrow hair and keep it that way? And I mean spell, not potion."

"Well, no, okay, that's a bit strange. Except if he uses potions and just don't admit it."

"Yes, except that the first, and seemingly only, instance where it happened was when Harry was around six years old, and at his _muggle_ relatives', with NO access whatsoever to any kind of potion."

"Accidental magic?"

"No Sirius. Accidental magic is the same kind of magic as spell, but wandless, wordless, and with very little direction except the kid emotion. It obey the same laws as spell, and in this case, if he had used accidental magic to regrow his hair, they would have come back to their short length in a matter of hours."

"Thank you professor. Okay. So he does have something weird going on. It was almost ten years ago. Why is it that nothing else showed? Have you looked for _other_ explanations, some that would allow that kind of anomaly in childhood?"

"I… didn't. I wouldn't even know where to look for another explanation. And furthermore, when I was looking for info on metamorphmagus, I found a few things that could explain that he's not an obvious one."

"Oh? There actually is an explanation about hidden metamorphmagus? How did they found them?"

"No, there is not. But there ARE general information about metamorphmagi born from metamorphmagi, who react differently from the other because they imitate the parent as soon as infancy, when first metamorphmagi in a family tend to develop their ability during childhood, before going to Hogwarts."

"And those who DOESN'T develop said ability?" asked Sirius, clearly waiting impatiently for another round of "let's-moke-cousin-Tonks-that's-so-easy-and-fun!"

"I suspect they would be muggle-borns. It's clear that there is NO muggleborn metamorphmagus. That may be simply because they never tried, because they had no model."

"Isn't that what you were saying about metamorphmagi without a metamorphmagus parent?"

"No: I checked with my mom: The first time I changed my hair color was to imitate her, except that she didn't use metamorphmagus ability, but a potion, instead. What I mean is that, to a muggle-born, changing appearance is not something they imagine possible, and that probably mostly stop them from trying. But if that theory is true, then it's not really a problem about muggle-**born**, but a problem about muggle-**rised**. Which is true in Harry's case: As a result, he clearly supposed the growing-back of his hair to be "accidental magic", when most wizarding family knowing even a bit about accidental magic and magical theory would be able to tell you that it's not. And so, I suspect there must be some muggleborns who actually ARE metamorphmagi, they just don't know about it."

"Okay, then. As incredible as it is, I do see how you consider your theory to kind-of-make-sense. It actually totally does! So why only kind-of? We could just go tell him and have him try to change something! That WOULD be quite a good hidden talent to have, first, metamorphmagi are so rare, no-one knows much about exactly how good it can be, plus, no one would ever suspect HARRY to have that ability, unless they have access to the kids' random discussion AND your own random thinking in the exact good combination: not going to happen, so that's a total bonus!"

"The "kind-of" problem come from another thing Ron said about Harry's hair: apparently, they don't grow."

"That's easy, if he rules it out as accidental magic, he probably doesn't realise he's using the metamorphmagus ability to keep his hair the way he wanted them when he was six!"

"Except that metamorphmagi can only keep a feature unmoving for about a week. Even if I were to come back to my natural look, without changing anything, my hair would have to grow, even if slowly. My skin would have to tan. My nails would get longer. If Harry's hair truly haven't grown since he was six… It can mean two things: or it's an ability I know nothing about, or he got himself stuck. I read that it can happen during traumatic event. And that's where come the real worry: if he's stuck, it's dangerous, because maintaining the appearance would eat away at his magic, wich can lead to magical exhaustion, apparently, it happened a few times."

"That doesn't sound good. But wouldn't he have showed signs of magical exhaustion, by now, if he's stuck since he was six?", asked Lupin.

"Yes, that's the main reason why I can't convince myself entirely. There could be another explanation. Or maybe he just cut his hair frequently when no-one is looking, who knows. I NEED more information to decide…"

"Okay, so what we need, in fact, is mostly to know if he's stuck or not." Sirius got up and began planning out loud. "Once we know for sure, we can start on a new strategy, being: solving the block if blockage there is, or start right away with metamorphmagus training (or at least an introduction): are we on the same page?"

"That seems to sum it all pretty nicely. But we should hurry to get an answer, because now that the kids are in Hogwarts, we won't be able to notice if he gets magically exhausted."

"Don't worry about it, Lupin: I already asked Hermione and Ginny to keep an eye out for him in that direction. Without detailing the actual reason I worried about it, but they agreed to warn me if anything like that happened."

"If that's the case, I think we should wait for Christmas holidays to actually investigate anything. Given how insane the ministry is right now, I half expect them to monitor student mail, and we really wouldn't want to let that theory get out."

"And that leaves us with months of preparation for the haircut prank!"

"The haircut prank?" deadpanned Lupin. Yeah, she quite agreed. What the hell was going on in that cousin head of her? Wasn't he calling HER insane just a few minutes ago?

"Of course! How else would you expect to get Harry in that kind of discussion naturally. We have to trick him into telling us the truth, the entire truth, and nothing but the truth! And I may have a few ideas, already! Oh, I can't wait for Christmas to arrive!"

"Okay, so you're in charge of the "haircut prank", as you say. If you didn't get the answer we need by new year, I'm going to simply ask him."

"You're no fun Moony…"

"I believe getting the answer and preparing the next move is more important than fun, on that special circumstance. But I did give you a few days to solve the problem in whatever "fun" way you want."

"Yeah, I know. Actually, you're totally right, I shouldn't complain about you being no fun, but about you not trusting me! Have you so little faith in my pranking abilities?"

"I believe you're rusted."

"Ooh, so I need to warm up, is that what you're saying?"

"Err…"

"You're on, Remus! Prank war until Halloween! Tonks will be the judge!"

"You don't need that much warming up, I'm sure!"

"Of course I do! Okay, was there anything else that we should discuss? If not, I'm going to start on my battle plan!"

"Nope, nothing left."

"Yay! See you, Dora! Remus, fair warning: you're going to lose. Tremendously!"

"…"

And just like that, Sirius was out of the room, ready to make the Order of the Phoenix headquarter into a little warzone… Which left her with a regretful werewolf…

"I believe you just got yourself in a hell of a trouble, Lupin."

"Yes, I believe so too. If it keeps his moral up, it would be worth it, though… And please, call me Remus." That's nice of him, to remember how much Sirius hate this place he got trapped in.

"As long as you don't call me by my first name…"

"No problem. Not even Dora? I noticed that you didn't reacted as much…"

"That's a family nickname. The best I managed to get from mom."

"I see."

The lull in the conversation was becoming kind of awkward. Not Lu-Remus' fault, he was obviously trying to remember what counterspells would be most useful to stay mostly safe from her cousin pranks…

"Tell you what. You can call me Dora, if you want, as long as you keep it for when there's only the two of us. Not even Sirius can hear you use it, or he'll never let me forget it. Ah, maybe I should go too, I still have work to do this afternoon, after all, I took only the morning of…"

"Okay, have a nice day Ton-Dora"

"Nice day to you too"

While going out, she spent a bit of time wondering why did she allowed him to use that nickname, anyway? Well, at least he was polite and respectful enough, he shouldn't slip up, so no one needed to know… Just because he was almost a brother to Sirius, and kind of cute in a worn-out kind of way didn't mean anything. Did she just thought a guy ten year older than she was as cute? Wow… Well, he WAS. Better to hurry back to auroring before overthinking in that direction…

**So I tried to put a few things in place for future Remus/Tonks romance, even if I'm not sure I will make much of it (I never tried to write romantic stuff, and I'm affraid I would be totally out of my depths), and anyway, NOTHING will start before the end of 5th year anyway, but well... Let's say I'm trying to warm up... Also, up til now, there was no need to precise it, but consider that anything that isn't talked about in the fanfic goes according to canon. To the letter, unless I did a little mistake. I will stray from canon at some point, but not before quite a while.**


End file.
